Kinder's Buyout
Would Boost Debt
To $14 Billion

By

Russell Gold and

Serena Ng

Updated Aug. 29, 2006 11:59 p.m. ET

(See Corrections & Amplifications item below.)

Kinder Morgan Inc.'s debt load would double to $14 billion under its proposal to go private, leaving the company more vulnerable to a downturn in commodities, rising interest rates, or other shifts in the business landscape.

Kinder Morgan, an oil and natural-gas pipeline company, yesterday reached a long-expected agreement to go private after a special board committee sweetened...